With This Kiss

married, no matter what my father says about it.” James could be maddeningly sullen when he wished. It had gotten better since he was fifteen, but not that much better. “Do you know what I hate most in the world?”
    “I’m sure you’ll say your father, but you don’t really mean it.”
    “Besides him. I hate feeling guilty.”
    “Who on earth makes you feel guilty? You’re the perfect scion of the house of Ashbrook.”
    He ran a hand through his hair again. “That’s just what everyone thinks. Sometimes I would kill to go away, where they’ve never heard of earls and noblesse oblige and all the rest of it. Where a man could be judged on who he is, rather than on his title and the rest of that tomfoolery.”
    Theo frowned at him. “I don’t see where the guilt comes in.”
    “I’ll never be good enough.” He got up and strode to the side of the room to look out the window.
    “You’re being absurd! Everyone loves you, including me, and if that doesn’t mean something, I don’t know what does. I know you better than anyone in the world, and if I say you’re good enough, then you are.”
    He turned around, and she found to her relief that he had a lopsided smile on his face. “Daisy, do you suppose you’ll try to take over the House of Parliament someday?”
    “They should be so lucky!” she retorted. “But seriously, James, will you at least listen to my plan?”
    “To conquer the world?”
    “To conquer Geoffrey, which is much more important. If you would pretend to woo me, just long enough so that I would be noticed, it would mean the world to me. You never come to balls, and if you began to escort me, then everyone would be asking why, and before we knew it, I would find myself talking to Geoffrey about something… and then I could charm him into overlooking my profile and he would be mine.” She sat back, triumphant. “Isn’t that a brilliant plan?”
    James’s eyes narrowed. “It has some advantages.”
    “Such as?”
    “Father would think I was wooing you and leave me alone for a bit.”
    Theo clapped. “Perfect! I’m absolutely certain that Geoffrey will talk to you. Wasn’t he head boy in your last year at Eton?”
    “Yes, and because of that I can tell you straight out that Trevelyan would make an uncomfortable husband. He’s far too clever for his own good. And he has a nasty way of making jokes about people.”
    “That’s what I like about him.”
    “Not to mention the fact that he’s ugly as sin,” James added.
    “He isn’t! He’s deliciously tall and his eyes are bronzy-brown colored. They make me think of—”
    “Do not tell me,” James said with an expression of utter revulsion. “I don’t want to know.”
    “Of morning chocolate,” Theo said, ignoring him. “Or Tib’s eyes when he was a puppy.”
    “Tib is a dog,” James said, displaying a talent for the obvious. “You think the love of your life looks like a ten-year-old obese dog? ” He assumed a mockingly thoughtful attitude. “You’re right! Trevelyan does have a doggy look about him! Why didn’t I notice that?”
    Demonstrating that she had not spent seventeen years in the Duke of Ashbrook’s household for nothing, Theo threw one of her slippers straight at James’s head. It skimmed his ear, which led to an ungraceful (and rather juvenile) scene in which he chased her around the bedchamber. When he caught her, he snatched her around the waist, bent her forward, and rubbed his knuckles into her skull while she howled in protest.
    It was a scene that Theo’s bedroom, and indeed, many other chambers on various Ashbrook estates, had seen many a time.
    But even as Theo howled and kicked at his ankles, James had the sudden realization that he was holding a fragrant bundle of woman. That those were breasts against his arm. That Daisy’s rounded bottom was grinding against him and it felt…
    His hands flew apart without conscious volition, and she fell to the ground with an audible thud. There was true annoyance in her voice as she rose, rubbing her knee.
    “What’s the matter with you?” she scolded. “You’ve never let me fall before.”
    “We shouldn’t play such games. We’re— You’re soon to be a married woman, after all.”
    Theo narrowed her eyes.
    “And my arm is sore,” James added quickly, feeling his cheeks warm. He hated lying. And he particularly hated lying to Daisy.
    “You look fine to me,” she said, giving him a sweeping glance. “I don’t see an